Helmets used by automobile and motorcycle race drivers, for example, are typically provided with a protective transparent shield for shielding the eyes and face of the driver from dust, mud, oil and other airborne contaminants. Such shields also, of course, may protect the driver's face from exposure to air impinging on the face and eyes due to the high velocities of the race vehicle. However, the protective face shields can, in the course of a race or under practice runs of the vehicle, become quickly contaminated with mud and oil, for example, thereby reducing the driver's visibility substantially. Since the driver is usually quite preoccupied with handling the race vehicle, he or she has little time for reaching up to attempt to clean the shield by wiping a gloved hand across the shield. Moreover, the driver certainly has virtually no time to use any kind of a cloth or other cleaning member to remove dirt and other contaminants from the shield. developed which may be provided in stacked relationship on the helmet shield and torn or peeled away successively as the lenses become splattered with mud, oil or other debris from the racetrack. U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,746 to D. W. Bergmann, issued Feb. 13, 1979, describes a tear-away lens for covering the face shield of a driver's helmet. This patent, which is incorporated by reference herein, describes an arrangement wherein the helmet or shield is provided with spaced apart post-like fasteners on which are secured flexible transparent sheet-like lenses, each having a tab portion which may be grasped by the driver with one hand and rapidly peeled or torn away to expose a new lens. As each lens becomes contaminated and visibility therethrough is reduced, it is torn away to expose a clean uncontaminated lens. Plural lenses are usually stacked one on top of the other in numbers necessary to enable the driver to complete a race while preserving good visibility through the helmet shield.
Although the lens arrangement described in the Bergmann patent is useful, it has proven to be difficult to properly grasp and tear away when such action is required. Typically, a race driver has precious little time to take his hands off of the vehicle steering wheel or handlebars to grasp a tab or lobe attached to the lens to effect removal of the lens. Moreover, the driver is usually wearing relatively thick driving gloves which reduce dexterity when attempting to grasp the thin somewhat slick surfaces of the lens grasping tab portion.
Accordingly, there has been a need to improve the tear-away lenses described in the Bergmann patent and as further described herein by providing suitable means on the finger or thumb grasping tab of the lenses sheet to minimize slippage and failure of the grasping effort. It is to these ends that the present invention has been developed.